Although it doesn't have the same sizzle it once did, the competition between Micorsoft IIS and the Apache server for dominance in the Web server arena continues to be interesting. Recent results from the ongoing Netcraft Web Server Survey (http://www. netcraft.com/survey/) show that 65 percent of all active Web sites are running on Apache servers. IIS is the platform for 26 percent of active Web sites.
Despite Apache's success, say analysts at the META Group, IIS is the dominant platform inside the firewall at most companies, and Sun Microsystems' Sun Open Net Environment (ONE) is the second most popular choice. META Group analysts argue that the Web server is becoming a commodity product driven by the underlying OS—IIS is the choice for Windows, Sun ONE for UNIX, and Apache for Linux.